Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-05-19
IN A Sun CLUSTER, 4,
LIFE IN CONSTELLATION HERCULES
ANEvER ENDING DAY.

A Story Which the Far Seeing Astron.
/ Omer Reads in the Stars-A Land Of
Perpetual Daylight-The Light OF
Fifteen Moons.
In the constellation Hercules there IA A
compact star cluster well known 10 the
owrerS Of powerful telescopes as one Of
the most interesting and wonderful
phenomena to he found i'll the heavens
To the naked eve il looks like faint star
In the telescope il appears as II spherical
mass of stars. with short struggling
streams, also composed Of stars radiating
from H. William Herschel computed the
number Of stars in this cluster at not less
than II 900 In the center theY appear
SO compressed that IL is impossible 10
count them. OF course every one Of the
members of this starry swarm is sun.
and astronomers have sometimes piqued
their Imagination by wondering what
must be the condition Of things prevailing
III such system of suns, and what results
flow from the inevitable laws Of gravita
ton there. Could inhabited worlds exist
IN n sun cluster
Take the bright star Sirius the most
brilliant fixed star in the heavens ANY
one who wishes can see il in the southern
heavens early in the evening at this sea
son. Various estimates of the light cf
Sirius have made il from one twenty
thousand millionth mp To about one five
thousand milliOnth OF the suns light
Suppose We adopt the latter figure as be-
ing the most favorable TO Sirius. Then
comparing this with the fraction repre-
senting the light Of Il star in Hercules as
seen from lis nearest neighbOrs in COM
parison with that Of the sun. namely, one
three million six hundred -thOusandth, we
find that the light Of the star is nearly
400 times rs great as the light that Sir
ius sends 10 us. In other words, If We
cOuld visit the cluster in Hercules, We
should find that its stars as seen from
distance of 1900 900. 900 miles, their aver
age distance apart, would shine l. 400
times a. bright as Sirius shines in our
sky.
Sirius is probably 800 times Ms bright as
the faintest star that the naked eye per-
ceives on y clear night Then imagine u
star three times as much brighter than
Sirius as Sirius is brighter than the
smallest star you can see, and you will
have some notion Of the brilliancy Of the
stars in question rs seeu from one an
other.
PERPETUAL DAYLIGHT
Now lei Us suppose world revolv ing
around Il star situated n the center of the
cluster. Assuming that the surrounding
stars are arranged A a pre-: symmetrical
way. there would be Z, zen Of them
within It distance of 1000. COZ, 900 miles.
and each of these would, rs seen from the
world AT the center, appear 400 times
brighter than Sirius appears 10 III. There
would he upward of fifty stars twice as
far &kyay, each Of which would be $50
times as bright as SIRIUS. Thus the stars
of the cluster, as seen from the center,
would go on increasing in number and di
minishing in brightness, but As ihe total
number is limited to a. 600 or l., 200, the
outermost stars would be approximately
l3J ONu. 900, 900 miles away. and each
would shine SIX times As bright as Sirius.
IL is apparent that there would be a
sort of perpetual daylight at the center of
such congregation of suns. Let us see
about how bright this kght would he. OF
course our supposisitiOus planet might re-
ceive from the sun TO which il belonged as
brilliant II daylight as our sun gives to
us, but what would be the illumination of
its nights. or. i'll other words of that side
Of i, which turned away from IT'S
sun Zollner has estimated tile light Of
the sun 10 be 6lS. 900 times as great as
that of the full moon. This. upon she esti-
mate OF the amount of Sirius light as
compared with the suns that We have
adopted, would give the moon about 5000
times ss much light as Sirius.
EQUAL To FIFTEEN MOONS.
Since each of the stars in the cluster
has | 100 times the light If Sirius, at g.
oop, 900. 600 miles distance and there are q
dozen Of them within that distance of the
center, il follows that these dozen stars
will shed above twice As much light upon
Il world III the center of the cluster as the
full moon sends 10 Us. And since the
light received from IL body varies inversely
~ the SQUARE of lis distance while the
number of sucn bodies arranged III the
roughly spherical way We have supposed
would increase directly rs the square of
their distance from the center, it is clear
that the amount of light received from the
whole cluster would he AS many times the
amount received from the twelve stars
nearest the center. AS the radius of the
cluster exceeds 1900. 900 600 miles This
would be about fifteen times and 50 she
total amount Of light shed upon the
center would be fifteen times the amount
shed from the first twelve stars, or about
thirty times the amount that the full
moon pOurs upon the earth. But only
half the stars of the cluster would he
above the horizon al once and SO the illu-
mination Of the night sky ON our imagin-
AIRY world would he fifteen times as bright
As the light of The full moon upon the
earth
The number of stars visible to us with
the Unaided eye on n clear night is not
over ZOO, and the great majority of these
are 50 faint that they require some atteu-
ton 10 be seen at all. How contemplate.
then, is the starry firmamrnt presented 10
US in comparison with the glorious
heavens in this sun cluster of Hercules,
where more than twice ~ many stars as
We can see blaze nightly with Il radiance
So brilliant that the iainte>t of them are
six times aS bright as the greatest star ia
our sky.-New York sun.
Enormous Snowfakes.
Enormous suOwtiakes are recorded as
having fallen Jan. :. 1887 writer in
one of the magazines publishes measure